If you have ever tried to film your hunts, it can really give you fits. The cameras never behave, and you can’t ever get the right angle. You can of course try to take along another person, but they generally want to get paid. And even if you have an extra pair of hands, there is no guarantee that the camera guy is going to be at the right angle when the game shows up. The answer is a weapon mounted camera, and our friends at Daniel Defense sent us a new camera called a Contour that is meant to be just that. We have tried Flip cams, hand cams, and even full sized HD tape cams, to the tune of over ten thousand bucks, but nothing has worked as well as these little cameras from Contour. We got two of the Contour ROAM cameras, and we have only begun to figure out all the cool stuff you can do with them. Check out the videos here in the article to see some of our exploits so far. We have shot a few hogs and a couple gators so far with the Contour, and one of the gators was even with a muzzleloader. Contour has a dedicated weapon mount that mounts right to your Picatinny rail, and we have also had great success with rubber bands around the cameras on a regular old Remington 870 slug gun. These are extremely versatile and waterproof cameras that should bring a whole new generation of hunting and shooting videos to Youtube and Facebook. If you are making your list for Santa already this year, make sure you have got a Contour camera on there.

Putting this camera through its paces took close to a month over the course of several hunts. It seemed like the camera was always with the same person who never had the right gun with a camera on it. This gator video is a little gruesome, so if you are squeamish don’t play it. This was a gator that was killing the game hogs who were crossing through its resident canal. He had to go, so Dwayne attempted to take him on camera, using the Contour. As you can see, the automatic aperture control on the Contour adjusts quickly as the light comes in and out, and the colors are vivid. The only way you get footage like this is to always have the camera on, and there is no camera that makes this as easy as the Contour. We call this one “Alligator Mash.”

Raving about a good product is easy, but nailing down just what is wrong with the Contour is what this next video is about. The lack of support for an external microphone is probably the biggest weakness, but the cameras are after all WATERPROOF, so you can’t really have that both ways. Sound behind the camera is muffled, but usable. You could carry a separate digital audio recorder and cut them together later if you wanted. The other issue is that you have to be close if you want something Youtube’able. Far shots will carry memories, and the colors and clarity is amazing. But if you want striking, get right on stuff. There is no viewfinder on the Contour, but it has a laser to show you the shooting edges, as explained below.

Overall the Contour ROAM, which is actually the baseline model, is a fantastic camera that hasn’t let us down yet. We keep an elastic around the switch when not in use because it is easy to turn it on by mistake. When that little circle lights up, you are recording, and the quality is outstanding. We hope to see these cameras back for more, and we may even use them for some of the outdoor stuff at SHOT Show. We have tried a whole bunch of different cameras and the Contours are head and shoulders above the rest.

The Contour camera systems are completely different from other portable cameras. They have a mount specifically made for the Picatinny rail spec, and it works great. This is mounted on an Ambush rifle, which was used for most of the footage here, except the stuff that is specifically listed as not using the special mount.

We haven’t tried the veracity of the waterproof claim on the Contours because we don’t want to lose them, but as you can see, the rear controls are rudimentary. There is a USB charge slot (for internal lithium rechargeables), a slot for the card, which is a Micro SD, and a couple reset buttons.

There is no screen on the Contour cameras, but they do have this laser that shows you the boundaries of the camera lense to set up your shot.

The cameras come in a hard case with the cords, but no card.

It comes with several mounts, but not the Picatinny mount, unless you buy a package deal with it. This is one of the included sticky mounts that came with the camera, mounted on a Ten Point crossbow for an upcoming article.

The video resolution is 1280 x 720, and it produces a .MOV quicktime file that imports into Adobe Premier easily.

If you like the Roam, try the GPS model. It embeds a GPS tag and when you view the video in the included software or any software that has GPS ability, it will show you on a map the point where you are when taking the video. Not so cool if you are in a treestand but if you are spot and stalking, it will track your route. My only dislike about the contour cameras is the short battery life. You almost have to wait till the action is about to begin before you turn on the camera. If it could get 4 hrs on a single charge I would be 100% happy. I can only manage to get 2 to 2-1/2 hrs on a charge.

All I can say is GoPro HD Hero, Hero II, and Hero III. Make a picatinny mount yourself for under a dollar, and you’ve got a rocking gun cam for like $300. Plus, if you ride, dive, race, skydive, etc, take it there too. GoPro is the be-all end-all of action cams.

How about a smaller version that can mount on a pistol with instant on for CCW carry.
This would be great to record an event if you ever had to use your weapon.
Have it turn on automatically when the weapon is un-holstered.

I like that idea Glenn!!!! We “Carry” to protect ourselves from the ones that want to cause us harm, and this would help Protect us in the courtroom from the ones that want to put us away for protecting ourselves!!!!!

One of the better ideas I’ve heard lately Glen. I think any manufacturer who can produce a reliable “Carry-Cam” will find a large market. No frills, price point at less than $300. Needs to be a clean installation like the lasers on the new Rugers. I’ll test one for ‘em.

I have a Contour HD and I must say. I purchased a Shot Trak HD Action Gun-camera with Laser from Overstock.com. This camera comes with a weapons mount for Pistol,Shotty and AR style. 5X optical zoom and HD video. It has an intergrated laser and up to 20 hours standby, 2 hours video and will accept Micro SD 32mb max. The video quality is actually better than my contour and it has all the mount adapters you need to mount to your weapon. Oh and the killer! 149 dollars in a rugged black case much smaller than the contour. Optic Planet, Amazon and Overstock has them in stock.